By: Tanja Brkić / Nova24tv
Slovenia is right before its next presidential election, and tensions are rising. The presidential race is in full swing, with the advantage going to Anže Logar, whose victory could only be prevented by the deep state, or in this case, the fact that Dušan Vučko, whose name has become synonymous with irregularities, still has a major say in the State Election Commission.
“This is also just great… 1000 of us from abroad send our ballot papers to the State Election Commission, and there, those calculating weasels replace our ballots with their own, which are already filled in. If only they were numbered… They think we’re stupid, the whole lot of them,” one Twitter user wrote, in addition to publishing a photo of a blank ballot paper that looks anything but “official and correct.” The irregularities of the State Election Commission under the leadership of Dušan Vučko that happened during the elections to the National Assembly, which they did not even deny, have not been forgotten yet, and apparently, the story of the presidential elections is no different.
What is most worrying about the presidential elections at the moment is the fact that the leading position in the State Election Commission is still held by the former member of the transition-plenary Liberal Democracy of Slovenia party (Liberalna demokracija Slovenije – LDS), Dušan Vučko. That is also one of the reasons why, at the end of September, the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) parliamentary group requested an extraordinary session of the National Assembly be convened to recommend to the Government that conditions be established for the legality of the elections, for the uniform application of the legislation relating to electoral and referendum procedures, for ensuring the publicity, integrity, impartiality and objectivity of the Commission’s work, and for the fairness of the conduct of elections and referendums.
In view of the numerous irregularities recorded during the last elections to the National Assembly and the otherwise extensive powers of the State Election Commission, the question arises as to whether any unpleasant surprises could happen again. And judging by the aforementioned post of one Twitter user, the answer is yes.
A former employee of the State Election Commission already pointed this out
The whole situation became much clearer when the former employee of the State Election Commission, Nina Mujagić, told Siol the story of being let go from the Commission. Among other things, she pointed out the fact that she had received a notification from the Labour Inspectorate, which, at her initiative, had inspected the State Election Commission for mobbing, bullying and its annual evaluation, and had found breaches of the Employment Relationships Act, which led to the State Election Commission being sanctioned under the Minor Offences Act. Ms Mujagić also highlighted an example of a suspicious practice, namely that the State Election Commission sent blank ballot papers abroad a few days ago, ahead of the new elections, which is the first time this has happened, and the former employee fears that this decision of the Commission will only lead to a larger number of invalid ballot papers. It seems that her fears were justified, and many have been convinced for quite some time now that “it’s time to remove the old communist Dušan Vučko from the top of the State Election Commission…,” as one Twitter user put it.
Irregularities at the State Election Commission keep on piling up
Let’s think back to what happened this Spring: it started with the unacceptable delays in sending the ballot papers to the voters living abroad, which prevented many eligible voters from actually voting by post and thus impermissibly interfered with their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote. Some of the voters living abroad even received the mail with the electoral materials after the elections were already over. The Commission also ignored the comments of the representatives of the political parties and lists, who said that the ballot papers should have been designed differently. It also made an error in the handwritten certification of the candidate lists. Finally, it should also be noted that the State Election Commission also miscalculated which candidates were elected to the National Assembly. It is precisely because of these unexplained irregularities, which cast a shadow on the legitimacy and legality of the elections to the National Assembly, that one of the members of the State Election Commission had submitted a proposal for the dismissal of the Director of the Commission. Of course, after the elections, the Commission merely rejected this proposal and once again gave its majority support to Vučko, who thus remains in office and will continue to have a major say in the conduct of the upcoming presidential and local elections.